Question: We know that our mind makes form, according to our perceptions and vibrations. We know, as you’ve said, God is causing us to blossom in the beam of His attention and is pouring through us, making everything happen. At the same time, everything is already Created. We are told that everything that will ever exist is already Created by God. Help us understand how both of these are true?
Isaac answered by holding his hands in front of his face, with only a tiny gap to allow him to see one person at a time. “What can I see now, with a narrowed view? Only you, and now only the next person.”
It’s like a long storybook that is already written, but we can read only one page at a time. We are here now. We experience only one page now. But the whole book is written. We can’t see the whole thing at once.
Imagine your Large Soul sending you out, lifetime after lifetime. It sends part of you to the causal plane and part to the astral plane, and sends you here to the physical. It’s really not as defined as this, but for the sake of understanding we can work with it in this way.
The Large Soul may send parts only into the causal and/or astral. But if it goes all the way into the physical, it has the causal and astral layers for sure. It’s like the root we spoke about, going deeper into the physical.
If you are here in the physical body, you know you also have counterparts in the causal and astral realms.
The Soul incarnates in order to learn and develop more skill in areas where it may be weak. For instance, your Large Soul may want to work on its skill of how to handle anger. Perhaps in past lifetimes you handled anger in a coarse way. Your anger was easily triggered and seeking vengeance. Perhaps part of you felt regret in that, and now the Large Soul wants to try again this lifetime to really focus and learn about anger.
So here you are, in a potentially angry moment. (He held his palms open, both sides balancing like a set of scales.)
Inside you hear a whisper: “I can’t stand this – it isn’t fair.”
Another whisper arises and says, “Wait, not now. Speak of it later, but not now. Cool off.”
But the situation is so heightened that the scales could tip in either direction. It’s up to you to make your move and learn from it. It’s your own learning. The Universe doesn’t judge you.
If you manage to go with the more peaceful suggestion, then you experience patience – perhaps for the first time ever.
Now you have made one inroad into the experience of Patience. You feel its vibration. Now you will know how to get back here again, to Patience. You have a platform on which to build. Your Large Soul gains growth from this experience.
You are living page by page, and yes, the whole book is already written. Although you feel you are making choices, the long view says it’s all God doing this. It’s not you doing anything at all. You are guided in everything, the good and the bad.
In fact there is nothing bad. It’s all from God. All of it is good. There is no such thing as evil, when you see it from broad perspective. Yes, there is suffering, there is difficulty, and all of that is valid. That is also true.
A person could take this teaching and say, “Well, whatever happens is meant to happen, so I don’t have to try.” But that’s not the attitude we want. Don’t stop efforting just because you know the whole book is already written.
The Sages looked for two things in their students:
First, the humility of not knowing the whole picture and not attempting to control it.
Second, a willingness to put forth effort. In fact if students assumed a controlling attitude or believed they could control God’s gifts to them, the teacher would give them assignments that brought them low.
Anyone may be brought low on any given day. Always for a purpose. Have the humility to know you are not in control of anything.
When your life is done, your body falls away, yet your consciousness is still living in the astral and causal planes. You have more to learn on those planes before returning fully to your Large Soul.
These are Isaac’s words from Chapter 76 of Volume 1, Walking the Bridge – With a Fearless Heart.
(Thanks to Pxfuel for this image.)
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